Sunday, March 25, 2012

She caught my eye clothed in purple as she delicately swayed
in the breeze — in rhythm to the jazz music playing at a garden party.

Now thirty years later she still stands out among the
hundreds of others that have come courting my heart.

I love lavender.

Maybe it’s the bright purple color that towers over the
fragrant, needle-like leaves. Maybe it’s her distinct musky aroma that beckons
my love — and the hundreds of honeybees that are drawn to her like magnets. I realize, of course, that I’m not her
only lover.

Perhaps what intrigues me is that people like me have been
using her as a remedy for ailments for thousands of years. She can be used for cooking, as tea,
essential oil or soaps and bath salts. The ancients use to call her spikenard
or nard — I just refer to her as lavender. She was used in ancient times by the Egyptians and people of
Arabia for perfume and mummification, Romans employed lavender oils for cooking
and bathing in addition to using the strong scent as a natural insecticide. In
ancient Greece, lavender was called “nardus,” “nard,” or “spikenard” — named for the Syrian city of Naarda.

Lately I’ve slept with a new lavender sachet near my pillow and
understand first hand why this herb has been used for thousands of years as a
remedy for sleeping ailments. The University of Maryland Medical Center
recently noted: “Research has confirmed that lavender produces slight calming,
soothing, and sedative effects when its scent is inhaled.”

Scientific evidence suggests that aromatherapy
with lavender slows the activity of the nervous system, improves
sleep quality, promotes relaxation, and lifts mood
in people suffering from sleep disorders.

According to
Prevention, new research shows “Psychologists
at Wesleyan University asked 31 men and women to sniff lavender essential oil
one night--and then distilled water the next--for four 2-minute periods just
before bedtime. The researchers monitored their sleep cycles with brain scans.
On the night they whiffed the herb, subjects slept more soundly; they also felt
more energetic the next morning.

The researchers
found that lavender increased slow-wave sleep, the very deep slumber in which
the heartbeat slows and muscles relax. During this phase, the brain is thought
to organize memory, as well.”

The first written record of the healing power of lavender is
attributed to the Greek military physician Dioscorides around 77 AD. Dioscorides,
collected medicinal plants from around the Mediterranean and noted in that De Materia Medica that lavender, when
taken internally relieved indigestion, headaches and sore throats. Externally,
lavender could be used to clean wounds and burns or treat skin ailments

It is recorded that Horace offered to send Virgil a
whole barrel of his best wine in exchange for a phial of nard.

Roman Elder, Pliny, in his Natural History, published in the first century AD, listed twelve
species of nard, ranging from lavender stoechas and tuberous valerian to true
nard — and recorded that
lavender was good for menstrual problems, stomach problems, kidney
disorders, jaundice, insect bites,
dropsy, and infections.

According to Bible Fragrances: “In the Old Testament, nard is referred to in the
Song of Songs, as a symbol of the intimate nature of the Bride’s love. This is
the point at which relations with her beloved are initiated. When the perfume
of nard is named, the bride recognizes her beloved as such.”